Progress made as Electra Fire containment surges to 40%
Cal Fire says crews have been aided by unseasonably cool weather, higher humidity levels than normal
JACKSON >> Unseasonably cool weather and higher-than-normal humidity helped firefighters make considerable progress in containing the Electra Fire burning along the Amador-Calaveras county line, Cal Fire said Thursday.
As of 7 a.m. Thursday, the wildfire covered 4,272 acres and was 40% contained. The fire was just 5% contained on Tuesday night, Cal Fire spokesperson Jas Shaw said at a news conference.
Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Jeremy Pierce said Wednesday evening that the fight against the fire was “going as planned.”
“There have been no surprises in any of our operations today and they've all been extremely successful,” Pierce said.
The Amador County Sheriff's Office on Thursday removed road closures at intersections located on Tabeaud Road at Highway 88; Mt. Zion Road at Highway 88; Clinton Road at West Clinton Road; and Upper Clinton Road at Butte Mountain Road.
Authorities closed roads at the intersections of Tabeaud Road at Amador Lane; Tabeaud Road at Ponderosa Way; and Tabeaud Road from East Clinton Road to Arrow Head Road. Areas north of the road were reduced to a warning, the sheriff's office said.
In Calaveras County, a road closure moved from the intersection of Highway 26 and Buckeye Lane to east of Montgomery Road in Mokelumne Hill. An evacuation order for all of Montgomery Road was lifted Thursday.
Temperatures on Thursday were expected to rise into the low to mid-90s in the area of the blaze, according to the National Weather Service. They were unseasonably cool Wednesday, said Brian Newman, a fire behavior analyst with Cal Fire.
Humidity levels were also higher than normal, he said.
“What that's done for us is allowed for the moderation of some of the fire behavior compared to what we experienced when the fire first started,” Newman said.
Humidity levels were expected to drop by a few percentage points Thursday. Winds were supposed to hover below 10 mph, which Newman said will be “really advantageous for our crews working out there.”
The Electra Fire ignited around 3:45 p.m. Monday near Electra Road and Highway 49, southeast of Jackson in Amador County. Cal Fire Amador-El Dorado Unit Chief Mike Blankenheim said the fast-moving flames initially reminded him of the 2015 Butte Fire, which consumed 70,868 acres, killed two people and destroyed 877 structures.
“It started very much in the same place as the fire in 2015 and crossed the (Mokelumne) river very much in the same place in 2015,” Blankenheim said. “For the first few hours, it was really shaping up like we were going to have a repeat of that disaster in 2015 and that did not sit well obviously.”
Conditions, as noted by Newman, were more favorable this time around, and with no other major fire activity in the region, the unit was able to call on the entirety of Cal Fire's firefighting resources. An incident management team was also on hand from the start.
“Everything right out of the gate was at our immediate disposal,” Blankenheim said.
The fire is threatening 1,217 structures, according to Cal Fire. So far, no structures have been destroyed or damaged. At least one first responder has been injured on the job.
Evacuation orders remained in place for areas of Amador County Deputies are patrolling the evacuated areas, said Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman.
“We have already caught somebody that ran a roadblock and was casing houses and up to no good,” Redman said. “He is now in the Amador County jail and we will continue to have that zero tolerance in Amador County.”
“We also have additional resources out in evacuated areas,” added Lt. Greg Stark of the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office. “If you come to Calaveras or Amador county, you will go to jail for looting.”
In an incident update Wednesday night, Cal Fire said it expects to fully contain the fire by July 18.
“We do have a really good plan in place over the next few days to gain some more containment on this incident and ultimately gain control of the incident,” said Chris Trindade, an incident commander with Cal Fire. “We have the best folks in our corners.”